Dead Space 3 returns players to the space-shoes of Isaac Clarke, as well as allowing two-player co-op for the first time in the series. Picture: Courtesy of EA Source: Supplied

WHY is horror such a successful genre in video games? Maybe it's because, like a roller coaster, it allows us experience the thrills and excitement of a terrifying ordeal while maintaining a sense of safety.

Or perhaps it's because it gives us a platform by which we can confront images and ideas that we'd usually leave safely tucked away. It may just even be pure voyeurism - we like to see other people in danger.

Whatever the reason, when the first Dead Space game arrived in 2008, and again when it's sequel was released in 2011, it was clear that horror games would never be quite the same again.

The games thrust players into the space-boots of Isaac Clarke , an engineer whose story begins on a small team sent to investigate the distress call of the USG Ishimura, a planet-cracker: a spaceship used for breaking entire planets apart to plunder their natural resources.

Within minutes of arriving aboard the vessel, it became clear that something was very, very wrong - the entire crew had been turned into gruesome, multi-limbed creatures called Necromorphs.

Gamers were instantly drawn to the Dead Space series' terrifyingly beautiful visuals and sound design, it's uniquely claustrophobic and oppressive atmosphere, and it's rich and mysterious universe, which drew on a wealth of sci-fi influences ranging from Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey to the works of authors like H.P Lovecraft and Isaac Asimov.

And of course, it's genre-twisting mechanic of limb removal - Dead Space threw out the zombie staple of 'aim for the head' and instead forced players to decapitate the mutant limbs of their enemies to kill them.

But one of the game's biggest achievements came from the fact that, like the classic works of sci-fi and horror fiction, it was also full of subtler meaning - its developers wove in commentary on everything from environmentalism to religion - one of the primary antagonists of the series is the 'Church of Unitology', a cult-like organisation with which many have drawn parallels to the real-world Church of Scientology.

And as the Dead Space universe has grown, so too have the questions of its audience:

Where did the Necromorphs come from? What are the origins of the ominous, 2001-esque 'Marker' that seems to control them? What are the true goals of the Unitologists, and who is the shadowy figure behind EarthGov's experiments on Titan Station?

With the series' third installment, Dead Space 3, only a few months away from release, some players may be beginning to feel that they've been thrown a bucket of red herrings. But the game's executive producer, Steve Papoutsis, says that they're about to be given the answers they're so desperately seeking.

"We’re aiming to try to answer as many of the important questions as we can, because we’ve had a lot of great support from the players, and we want to answer their questions," said Mr Papoutsis is an interview with news.com.au.

"But at the same time, some questions are meant to be kind of open-ended - there’s a lot of Dead Space out there, and we want it to continue."

"So yes, we will be answering the burning questions, but maybe we will leave some stuff unanswered."

And yes, the team has known where it's been heading from the start. Or at least, they've known where it's all been heading for Isaac.

"In the bigger picture of Dead Space and the universe, we know where Isaac’s story is going. That’s what we’ve been crafting for the last six years now, we’re really just focusing on his journey, and his adventures.

"Dead Space 3 continues the themes around Isaac, around his personal journey and how that ties back into the Markers and ultimately the Necromorphs."The third game is the biggest Dead Space game we’ve ever made, hands down.

"It’s the longest, it’s got some of the deepest, most rewarding mechanics and features that we’ve ever put together, and most importantly for us it’s going to answer a lot of questions people had coming out of game one and two."

One of the most interesting things about Dead Space is the way the game approaches violence. The combat is tricky, disturbing and utterly gruesome.

And unlike many modern shooters, there's never a sense that you're separated, physically or emotionally, from what's happening - you're in a dark, claustrophobic corridor surrounded by primal horrors trying to rip you to shreds, and you've got to do whatever it takes to survive.

But when the smoke clears and the roars and screams have died down - we're often confronted with a painful reminder that these monsters were once human beings.

Steve Papoutsis says they wanted to use violence as a tool for engaging with their audience's emotions, without trivialising its severity.

"Violence is a very powerful tool when used sparingly and appropriately. It’s very easy to go overboard and desensitise an audience, or approach it in a way where you trivialise its severity.

"With Dead Space it’s always been used as a punctuation of what’s going on, but we’re not glamorising it.

"We’re tying it back to the relatability factor – one of the things that allows us to tap into emotions with our players is when you can utilise a character or a design that makes a person cringe because they can relate to what’s going on.

"When you see that violent transformation of a dead corpse into a Necromorph, it triggers an immediate visceral response. We’re not focusing on the sheer gross out factor, though there is a lot of violence in the game. But we don’t intentionally glamorise it."

It's difficult to describe the experience of Dead Space as 'fun', but it's certainly compelling. Mr Papoutsis says that a lot goes into creating a world that's violent, frightening, and unsettling, while still being a place that you want to spend time in.

"There’s a balancing act, the way that we set out the world, the characters, we want it to feel gritty and relatable, in order to engage with people on a primal level, or to get across that visceral feeling.

"There’s quite a bit of attention from the team spent on the pacing of the game, to make sure that we get that right.

"The first game was all about tension, being on the edge of your seat. The second game we started to experiment with a wider degree of pacing, we wanted to have highs, lows, really powerful moments, excitement, action and we wanted to couple those with moments of fear and dread.

"And with the third game we wanted to evolve the way we do it, to the locations that we take you to, through the quests that you go on, and ultimately to the answers you get through the story as you progress.

Date/Time: 2012:05:12 15:21:00

Key among those new locations is Tau Volantis, the ice planet on which a lot of Dead Space 3 will take place.

"We’re really excited about the snow planet, Tau Volantis, because when we started talking about it, it immediately conjured these images of survival, of low-visibility, of a different type of claustrophobia.

"Through the low visibility and harsh conditions, it’s claustrophobic in the sense that you can’t see what’s ahead.

"The frigid temperatures feel like something you immediately have to contend with, you need to overcome in order to survive."

So what about Scientology?

With so many people noticing strong similarities between the Hollywood-based church and Dead Space's Unitologists, Mr Papoutsis says that any similarities are completely coincidental, although it's an answer that's a little hard to believe.

But it's also an answer that's hard to blame him for: the Church of Scientology is reported to have a long history of litigation.

"There were no intentional parallels there – a lot of people like to draw that parallel but it wasn’t intentional.

"As you go through history – religion has been at the centre of many conflicts, and that’s one of the themes we chose to utilise for the Dead Space world.

"It isn’t intended to be a stab at any real religion."

Dead Space 3 will be released on the February 7 2013 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

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